Nature, Culture, and Conservation in the Anthropocene - Biodiversity Conservation and Environmental Change - page 141

change, as well as successive social, economic and cultural forces, both external and internal,
including changing social and economic needs (Wu 2011). Many cultural landscapes have per-
sisted over long periods of time because of the ability of management systems to adapt and
respond to environmental, economic and social variability (Berkes et al. 2000, Barthel et al.
2013). There is therefore a natural synergy between ecosystem management and the conserva-
tion of cultural landscapes, because ecosystem management aims to reconnect people with the
natural ecosystems on which they depend for their material, cultural and spiritual well-being
(Grumbine 1994, 1997, MEA 2005). Culture and nature are both dynamic, and linked social-
ecological systems represent the response and adaptation of societies and ecosystems to
changing environmental, ecological, and social drivers (Gunderson and Holling 2001, Folke
et al. 2004). The ecosystems approach aims to maintain or restore the health of linked socioeco-
logical systems, using management techniques that are grounded in local context and appro-
priate to the local environment (Grumbine 1994, 1997, Smith and Maltby 2003). Focusing on
landscapes is an increasingly important facet of effective conservation in the Anthropocene
(Wu 2013, 2012), and the conservation and restoration of multifunctional landscapes that
include cultural elements is gradually becoming formalized in various ways (see Table 7.1), the
broad aim being to integrate formal protected areas in a wider context of different land use
zones, enabling both biological and cultural diversity to be conserved (Helming et al. 2003, de
Groot et al. 2005, Lovell and Johnston 2008, O'Farrell et al. 2010).
There are opportunities to support, restore, and strengthen traditional natural resource prac-
tices that have survived over long time periods because of their adaptive capacity, and to build on
cultural conservation practices that protect biodiversity for ritual, religious, cultural, and trad-
itional reasons (de Groot et al. 2005, Bhagwat 2009). Such longevity is a testament to the skill and
wisdom of land managers, and 'traditional' here is taken to imply a degree of sustainability that
results from successful ongoing resilience and adaptation that is sensitive to local culture and
appropriate to local environmental conditions (Berkes et al. 2000, Fischer et al. 2012, von Wehrden
et al. 2014). Integrating traditional and indigenous ecological knowledge and management prac-
tices does not imply stifling adaptation, preventing change or ring-fencing particular skills or
facets of environmental management within particular social groups. The terms 'biocultural
diversity' and 'socioecological complexity' can also be used to capture this enduring link between
society and nature and are helpful because they are less easily misinterpreted, but they are also
perhaps less intuitively understood (Cocks 2006, Barthel et al. 2013).
Adaptive cycles in the palaeoecological and historical records
Long-term sustainability and concerns over planetary boundaries and tipping points are
high on the policy agenda (Carpenter et al. 2009, Glaser 2012, Griggs et al. 2013, Hughes et al.
2013). What makes societies resilient to environmental change, and what happens when tip-
ping points are reached? There is an interplay between environmental change and socio-
economic resilience; long-term studies show that environmental change affects societies
through changes in essential ecosystem services like food and water provisioning, impacts
on health, and the associated effects on social capital, political stability, governance, and